EU Seeks New Space Rules After Satellites Collide

All those sending objects into outer space should `take appropriate steps to minimise the risk of collision`, the EU said.

Leading nations should adopt a code of conduct for civil and military activities in space, the European Union said on Thursday, hours after news emerged that U.S. and Russian satellites collided in orbit over the Arctic.

Such efforts could help prevent environmental emergencies and clashes that may lead to space becoming a site of conflict, the EU said in the proposed voluntary pact, presented to the Conference on Disarmament.

All those sending objects into outer space should "take appropriate steps to minimise the risk of collision", the EU said.

"States conducting outer space activities should also refrain from any intentional action which will or might bring about ... the damage or destruction of outer space objects," the Czech EU Presidency told the United Nations forum.

A privately owned U.S. communications spacecraft collided on Tuesday with a defunct Russian military satellite, according to the U.S. Strategic Command, which made it public on Wednesday.

The collision -- which was not believed to be intentional -- occurred in a polar orbit not far from that of a defunct Chinese weather satellite that was shot apart by a ground-based ballistic missile in a Chinese weapons test in January 2007.

NO AGREEMENT

Outer space is one of the many issues that has stymied the Conference on Disarmament in the past decade. It has failed to agree to launch negotiations on any major issue since clinching global pacts banning chemical weapons and underground nuclear blasts in the 1990s.

The United States has strongly backed a new fissile material cutoff treaty to ban production of plutonium and highly enriched uranium used for making nuclear bombs.

But others -- notably China and Russia -- have long argued that parallel progress is needed on other questions, including preventing weapons being deployed in space.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said last month that the Conference on Disarmament should act quickly to tackle issues. "At a time of global economic and financial crisis, advancing the disarmament agenda could produce a tangible peace dividend when the world needs it most," Ban told the forum on Jan. 20.

The EU's intended code of conduct, prepared in Brussels in December, would cover scientific, commercial and security work and specify reporting and notification rules to ensure safe, secure and transparent operations.

The Czech Republic said the draft text could form the basis for an eventual agreement at the Geneva forum, whose 65 members include the United States, China, Russia, India, Pakistan, and Israel.

"Such prevention contributes to the strengthening of international security and promotes international cooperation in the field of free exploration and use of outer space for peaceful purposes for all states," it said.